1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to systems and methods for wireless communications. More particularly, the invention relates to ultra wide band communication systems and methods.
2. Description of the Background Art
Wireless communication increasingly relies on the transmission of data in digital formats. Typically, a data stream is modulated onto a carrier frequency, and the modulated carrier signal is transmitted over a communications channel from a transmitter to a receiver. Generally, these communication systems use conventional narrow band modulated carriers for wireless network communication.
There are important disadvantages associated with using conventional narrowband modulated carrier frequencies. Particularly, in multipath environments such as inside rooms and buildings, data communication degrades because of multipath propagation or fading and can result in poor signal reception. Further, the rapidly increasing use of wireless consumer products has “crowded the airwaves” and will result in increasing interference with reception of data. Still further, narrow band modulated carriers rely on use of relatively expensive components such as high-Q filters, precise local high-frequency oscillators, and power amplifiers.
Spread-spectrum signals for digital communications were originally developed and used for military communications either to provide resistance to jamming or to hide the signal by transmitting the signal at low power and, thus, make it difficult for an unintended listener to detect its presence in noise. More recently, spread-spectrum signals have been used to provide reliable communications in a variety of civilian applications, including mobile vehicular communications.
There are several types of spread spectrum signals. In one type, the basic elements of a spread spectrum digital communication system include a channel encoder, modulator, channel decoder, demodulator, and two synchronized sequence generators, one which interfaces with the modulator at the transmitting end and the second which interfaces with a demodulator at the receiving end. These two generators produce a binary-valued sequence that is used to periodically change the carrier frequency and thus spread the transmitted signal frequency at the modulator and to follow the carrier frequency of the received signals at the demodulator.
In carrier-based frequency-hopped spread spectrum the available channel bandwidth is subdivided into a large number of non-overlapping frequency slots. In any signaling interval the transmitted signal carrier occupies one of the available frequency slots. The selection of the frequency slots in each signal interval is made either sequentially or pseudorandomly according to the output from a pseudo-noise generator. The receiver tuning follows the frequency hopping of the transmitted carrier.
Another alternative spread spectrum communication system uses base band signals. In base band spread spectrum communication, information may be transmitted in short pulses, modulated by relatively simple keying techniques, with power spread across a frequency band. With the signal spectrum spread across a frequency band, frequency selective fading and other disadvantages of narrow band communication can be avoided. Base band technology has previously been used in radar applications, wherein a single short impulse is directed to a target. The short impulse, spread across a large bandwidth, has significantly reduced spectral power density and thus has a reduced probability of detection and interference.
Ultra wide band (UWB) is a wireless technology for transmitting large amounts of digital data over a wide spectrum of frequency bands with very low power. UWB is an extension of conventional spread spectrum technology. The major distinction is that while conventional spread spectrum signals require a few megahertz to about 20 to 30 MHz of bandwidth, UWB uses vastly more spectrum from a few megahertz to several gigahertz. Therefore, UWB communication systems broadcast digital pulses that are timed very precisely on a signal across a very wide spectrum. The transmitter and receiver must be coordinated to send and receive at the proper time. One of the applications for UWB is to allow low powered voice and data communications at very high bit rates.
The transmission and reception of digital data of short pulses over an UWB spectrum would avoid the problems associated with narrow band data communications, and the cost and complexity of spread spectrum communications. Suitable, cost effective receiver architectures for receiving such data transmissions, have heretofore been unavailable.
Accordingly, there is a need for a UWB base band receiver system and method which can receive data in the form of short UWB pulses which can be used with a network of transceiver node devices, which is not susceptible to multipath fading or interference with a narrowband communication system, which can be used for indoor applications, and which is relatively simple and inexpensive to implement. The present invention satisfies these needs, as well as others, and generally overcomes the deficiencies found in the background art.
Therefore, it would be beneficial to provide an invention having a base band receiver apparatus and method which efficiently receives data in the form of ultra-short, spread spectrum pulses.
It would also be beneficial to provide a baseband receiver system and method capable of receiving signals transmitted with different modulation methods.
It would be further beneficial to provide a baseband receiver system and method capable of receiving signals transmitted with variable pulse repetition frequencies.
It would be beneficial to provide a baseband receiver system and method capable of receiving signals transmitted using two different modulation methods such as on-off keying and pulse amplitude modulation.
It would be beneficial to provide a base band receiver apparatus and method which allows synchronization to a master clock of a remote master transceiver device in a multiple transceiver device network.
Further benefits of the invention will be brought out in the following portions of the specification, wherein the detailed description is for the purpose of fully disclosing the preferred embodiment of the invention without placing limitations thereon.